Monk

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.

-- Michael Caine

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, Notorious directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1946)

Notorious is a 1946 American thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. It was shot in late 1945 and early 1946, and was released by RKO in August 1946.

Notorious marks a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and represents a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that "Notorious is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life."

-- Wikipedia

If people want to think I get drunk and stay out all night, let ‘em. That’s how I got here, you know.

-- Dean Martin

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Spike Lee has a documentary on Michael Jackson that will be airing around the Thanksgiving holiday, titled "Bad 25". I should record it.



Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” album and subsequent world tour, “Bad 25” reintroduces us to an artist viewed too often through the prism of tabloid speculation.

Deconstructing the design and shooting of the album’s videos -- or, as Jackson insisted on calling them, short films -- the director, Spike Lee, assembles a fond and meticulously detailed mosaic of a perfectionist at work. Buoyant interviews with Jackson’s friends, collaborators and business partners supply a deluge of revealing yarns and trivia, while priceless rehearsal footage offers glimpses of a genuinely sweet personality. Though at times a tad worshipful, the film’s tone is ultimately more awed than hagiographic, its commenters too cleareyed and candid to back away from negative publicity or public disenchantment.

Filled with oh-wow moments -- like a 1988 clip of Sheryl Crow, with mountainous hair, partnering Jackson in the ballad “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” -- “Bad 25” confirms the genius of an authentic pop original.

-- ONTD

I like joy; I want to be joyous; I want to have fun on the set; I want to wear beautiful clothes and look pretty. I want to smile and I want to make people laugh. And that’s all I want. I like it. I like being happy. I want to make others happy.

-- Doris Day

It has been a while sinc we have heard anything O. J. Simpson. You might expect him to fade away in his ignominy, but this is America. There is a lurid story that he is trying to make millions of dollars selling the knife he supposedly used to kill his wife. It's from the National Enquirer, so it may be more fictional than real, but, hey, let's relive a little the days of that sensational trial of the 90s.

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So, I caught Yvonne Strahovski’s debut performance on “Dexter” last night. I am afraid that it is Sarah Walker that has all my love, as though I need to see Yvonne as the kung fu chopping super-spy seductress that she played on “Chuck”. It was the story as much as the girl. I will watch the rest of the season of “Dexter”, though. I did like the black bra through the light-colored shirt. She is still a hot blonde. I just don’t feel the magical fairy dust about her.

I didn't know Brad Pitt was big against the War on Drugs. Though, he does say that his own druggy days are behind him.

_ _ _

Brad Pitt is openly slamming the federal government’s so-called War on Drugs.

It's been "an incredible failure," The Fight Club star told The Huffington Post.

[...]

"The only way to end the war on drugs is to take the profit out of it…we have to look at the what-if-everything-was-legal and people were allowed to make their own choices," he said.

-- ONTD

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I agree, of course, but as a practical matter I don't think the issue would help the Democratic cause, which is very much a struggling cause at this point. Naturally, there is no thought of the Republicans taking up the banner of Woodstock and legalized drugs. At the very best, there is a little hope in being able to make some headway in getting marijuana accepted as freely as booze, but even this is highly challenging in our political climate.

All the buzz for the new double-oh-seven flick is killing me. I may have to work up some pluck and energy to go out and see it, after all.

_ _ _

After the promise of Casino Royale and the anti-climax of Quantum Of Solace, the question was whether he (or new director Sam Mendes) would be able to bring anything fresh to a series that has been running for half a century. The answer is, yes, absolutely. If not a full blown triumph, this is certainly one of the best Bonds in recent memory.

[...]

Craig again impresses as Bond. He switches without fuss from Roger Moore-style self-deprecating comedy (adjusting his cuff links in action sequences) to the darker, more intense scenes which focus on Bond’s childhood traumas. The film, one of the longest in the recent Bond canon, occasionally becomes repetitive. The plot doesn’t really stack up and the Sam Peckinpah-style finale, in the Scottish Highlands, initially seems a little self-indulgent given all the shootouts and chases we’ve already seen. However, the film ends with an emotional kick that you don’t often find in Bond. It also shows the way forward. At the age of 50, there is no sign at all that Bond is finished yet.

-- ONTD

A little insider James Bond info on his favorite drink, the Vodka Martini, Shaken not Stirred.

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Our source, John Hayes of Penn State, says that since shaking a martini has a diluting effect on the drink, perhaps this was Fleming's way of keeping Bond's head in the game, even as he sipped a famously stiff cocktail. The science behind this theory: When the martini is shaken, tiny bits of ice flake into the drink, and as they melt, the drink is diluted. (Also, bartenders usually slough off what's left in the stainless steel shaker, so maybe Bond was drinking less alcohol than we thought.)

[...]

"Shaking will better remove very volatile organic compounds from the liquid [alcohol]," explains George Christou of the University of Florida, "and air oxidizes some of the other organic compounds present, affecting its taste." This is akin to letting red wine breathe before you serve it, he says. Christou also says some cheaper vodkas made from potatoes have some oil in them, and shaking will make an emulsion that will hide the oily taste — although it's hard to imagine Bond drinking cheap vodka.

-- Sully's Dish